After the successful pilot of L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering’s (LTHE) project SARALsamudaay in Ropa and Mastupura villages the project has now been extended to three more villages, Bakrol, Sikandarpura and Hanumanpura in Vadodara’s Waghodia taluk. 

SARALsamudaay is an integrated community development project that empowers the rural poor through a multifaceted development approach which targets the individual, the family, the community, and the village. In association with the help of NGO partners such as Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group (AWAG) and SCORE Livelihood Foundation, the program comprises of focused interventions in the areas of education, water & sanitation, skill building, health care, and community development and relies on a model in which beneficiaries themselves take ownership of the program and act as prime movers of success.

The interventions focus on skill building which form the backbone of SARALsamudaay and have been crucial to its success. While open to both men and women, these interventions lay a special emphasis on the latter. This stems from the belief that women’s financial independence and participation accelerates the process of development as they tend to invest a higher portion of their earnings into the family which in turn improves things like health and nutrition levels of members, children’s education, and helps get rid of the social inequities which are usually found in backward communities. 

The training interventions for women feature courses in stitching & dress-making, beauty and wellness. Besides this, through self-help-groups (SHG) the women are encouraged to pursue income generation activities and set up nano enterprises like paper bowl making or poultry farming. They’re also offered life-skills coaching in areas such as financial and digital literacy, legal and health awareness. The program even facilitates interaction with other actors like community, market and state bodies which help trigger systemic and institutional changes.

Having matured significantly in the two years since the program first began, the skill development interventions of SARALsamudaay received enthusiastic participation of a sizeable number of women during the program year. Several young girls and women who completed stitching and tailoring course have expressed a desire to set up shops in the hopes of gaining financial independence. There are SHG members who appear more determined than ever to take up more enterprising roles and began savings schemes, set up small businesses and are exploring entrepreneurial ventures. Moreover, there’s a discernible change among their attitudes thanks to greater digital and financial awareness.

***